Thinking Activity- 'The Importance of Being Earnest'

This Blog is Written in response to the thinking activity on 'Importance of Being Earnest' given by Dilip Barad sir at the Department of English, MKBU.

1. Comment on ‘Earnest Fixation’ as a major theme of the play.

Introduction

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on 16 October 1854,he was Poet, Playwright and Critic. For himself he said that,

  “I put all my genius into my life, I put only my talent into my books.”

He studied at two famous colleges, Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalen College, Oxford. 

His famous works are,

A collection of poems (1881)

The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) 

 The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1890

Social Comedies,

Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

 An Ideal Husband (1895) 

The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London.

The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a three act Play. A satire of Victorian social hypocrisy, this witty play is considered as Wilde’s greatest dramatic achievement.

Main themes of the Play

The ‘Earnest Fixation’

The Nature of Marriage

The Constraints of Morality

Hypocrisy vs. Inventiveness

Duty and Respectability

The Absence of Compassion

Secret Lives

Passion and Morality

Class Conflict

The ‘Earnest Fixation’ as major theme of the play

            Earnestness, which implies seriousness or sincerity, is the great enemy of morality in The Importance of Being Earnest. Earnestness can take many forms, including boringness, solemnity, pomposity, complacency, smugness, self-righteousness, and sense of duty, all of which Wilde saw as hallmarks of the Victorian character.

The title of the play ‘The importance of being Earnest’, emphasises on the word ‘Earnest’. That can mean Two Things, it can be the feeling of Earnestness or can be a character's name. The main character of the play Algernon and Jack both use the false identity of being ‘Earnest’ to be successful to marry the girls they love. Jack makes a sibling called Earnest to go and live in the city from the rural town and, Algenon makes up a friend named ‘Bunbury’ to go to towns and escape his aunt's high class gatherings. 

The whole play focuses on the two main couples Jack and Gwendolen, and Algenon and Cecily. Both the lady characters Gwendolen and Cecily want to marry the person called ‘Earnest’. They are fixated to the name. When Jack goes to tell Gwendolen that his name is not Earnest and is Jack, then she says that,

“Jack? No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces absolutely no vibrations .”

In the play for the main characters, the safest name is ‘Earnest’. Gwendolen who seems to be in love with Jack, but she gives more importance to the senseless thing like the name ‘Earnest’. In the same way Cecily is also in love with not Algenon but the name ‘Earnest’ and creates fantasies around the name. She says in play that,

“There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence. I pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called Ernest.”

Conclusion

For Wilde, the word earnest comprised two different but related ideas: the notion of false truth and the notion of false morality, or moralism. The moralism of Victorian society, its smugness and pomposity, impels Algernon and Jack to invent fictitious alter egos so as to be able to escape the strictures of propriety and decency. However, what one member of society considers decent or indecent doesn’t always reflect what decency really is. One of the play’s paradoxes is the impossibility of actually being either earnest or moral while claiming to be so.

2. "The Importance of Being Earnest" As A Comedy Of Manners.

The Importance of Being Earnest is perhaps the most one-dimensional of Oscar Wilde’s plays. It is a perfect example of what Oscar scholar Richard Pent VEND called “the comedy of manners,” meaning that it takes place in a specific social context and explores how the characters interact within it. That said, there are other layers to this play that we don’t see often in comedies of manners. There are many hidden symbols and meanings that have been debated for more than 100 years. In this article, we will take a look at some of these theories and see what they reveal about the play.

The Importance of Being Earnest: A Comedy of Manners

If you were to ask 10 different people what this play is about, you would likely get 10 different answers. This is because the play itself is full of satire and symbolism, and these elements will mean something different to each reader. This is what makes The Importance of Being Earnest a classic comedy of manners. It takes place in a specific social setting and explores how people interact within that setting. This social context is Victorian society and its standards of propriety.

The Importance of Being Earnest and Victorian Society

As a comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest is set in the late 19th century, just as the Victorian era was coming to a close. The Victorian era is often summarized as the era of civility, where everyone was polite to a fault and kept emotions in check. This was the age of the stiff upper lip. This was a time of great exploration, especially in the sciences. It was a time of great growth and change, but also a time of great conservatism and tradition. This is indicative of the two sets of characters in The Importance of Being Earnest: the “modern” characters, who are more interested in logic, reason, and progress (the “New” cynics like Jack and Algernon), and the more traditional characters, who tend to cling to their old-fashioned way of doing things (the “old” cynics like Miss Prism and Lady Bracknell).

Symbolism in The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest is filled with symbols that have been debated for over 100 years. Some of them are obvious, but most are hidden. They are meant to add another layer to the play and make it more textured and thought-provoking. These symbols are often used to critique Victorian society. Oscar Wilde also uses these symbols to add humour and to make the play more accessible to a wider audience. Some of these symbols include:

- Diary of Cecily

- The cucumber sandwich 

 - The flowers - Lilies, roses, and the sunflower.

 - The colour green - The colour of envy, jealously and unfulfilled desires.

 - The colour pink - The colour of impersonal love. - The colour white - The colour of an innocent virgin and the colour of death.

 - The doubles and misunderstanding of names. - The names: “Earnest”, “Worthing”, “Cecily”, “Miss Prism”, and “Lady Bracknell”.

 - The pictures.

Conclusion

The Importance of Being Earnest is perhaps the most one-dimensional of Oscar Wilde’s plays. It is a perfect example of what Oscar scholar Richard Pent Vend called “the comedy of manners,” meaning that it takes place in a specific social context and explores how the characters interact within it. That said, there are other layers to this play that we don’t see often in comedies of manners. There are many hidden symbols and meanings that have been debated for more than 100 years. In this article, we will take a look at some of these theories and see what they reveal about the play. - If you are going to read one play by Oscar Wilde, choose The Importance of Being Earnest. It is a great introduction to his work and will show you the many different layers that can be found in his comedies of manners.